JNU crackdown: Lookout notices for 3 students issued

By reader on February 21, 2016Comments Off on JNU crackdown: Lookout notices for 3 students issued

New Delhi: The Delhi Police have issued lookout notices for three JNU students, including Umar Khalid, even as the District Magistrate ordered forensic examination of a controversial video broadcast by a few television channels against a section of JNU students facing sedition charges.
Sources said the Delhi Police has asked the Foreigner’s Regional Registration Office (FRRO) to alert airport authorities to look out for three JNU students–Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhatacharya and Aswathi.
The three are alleged to have been part of protests on the university campus against Afzal Guru’s hanging on February 9.
Khalid initially appeared on TV shows to defend the event organised in the campus but went into hiding after JNU Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested. Police said the cellphones of the three absconding students have been tracked but they are continuously switched-off.
Meanwhile, the main video showing controversial JNU protests is alleged to be doctored, prompting a senior magistrate to order its forensic examination.
The video was broadcast by certain news channels, especially Times Now and NewsX, to whip up passions against the event and its organisers.
A different version of the controversial video was also aired that challenged the authenticity of the earlier video. This prompted the District Magistrate to order a probe.
“We got to know about the video showing the JNU student leader raising anti-India slogans and we also came across allegations that the video was doctored. So, we have sent it for forensic examination,” sources said.
Refusing to comment on the video clips which the police have probed so far, a senior official claimed that the charges in the case can be established with the help of the footage which the police have in their possession.
The police had registered the case of alleged sedition against Kumar and criminal conspiracy on the basis of a video clip which they had acquired from a Hindi news channel.
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has said that the attack in the Patiala House courts complex on Kanhaiya Kumar on Wednesday “appears to be organised and pre-planned.”
The top human rights panel probing the police action against Kumar and other students of JNU has said in its report on Saturday that the attack (on Kumar) was a major security lapse on part of the police. “They did nothing to stop the attack or catch the attackers”, the panel has said in a stinging indictment of the Delhi Police. Kumar was “abused and physically assaulted by some persons dressed as advocates” in the Patiala House Court complex.
“Going by the sequence of events, the safety and security of Kanhaiya and his family members is a serious cause of concern,” the report says.
“The statement which was issued by the police as an appeal on behalf of Sh. Kanhaiya Kumar was not written by him voluntarily. The content, construction and framework of the statement were as dictated by the police,” the panel has said.
Kumar told the panel “he was arrested without any valid reason and without disclosing to him even grounds of arrest.” It says though the JNU student did not complain of torture in custody, he was subjected to “psychological pressure during interrogation.”
The NHRC had issued notices on Tuesday to the Centre, the Delhi government, the Delhi Police and authorities of the Jawaharlal Nehru University over the police action on the university campus following an event against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
Notices were issued after the NHRC took cognisance of media reports about an event at JNU last week where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised, leading to the arrest of Kumar on sedition charges.
The NHRC panel was looking into reports that the JNU Students Union president, Kanhaiya Kumar, has denied the allegations and said he went to the spot only to intervene in a clash between two groups. The Commission also asked for responses into the allegations of undeserved police presence on the university campus and “students being witch-hunted.”

SAR Geelani detention: Hurriyat (G) to hold press meet on Monday
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